Kentucky misses on international basketball recruit with NBA lottery potential
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky signed Serbian prospect Nikola Kusturica as the final addition for 2026–27.
- Kusturica, a 6-foot-8 Serbian wing, played for FC Barcelona and won NextGen EuroLeague.
- At 17, Kusturica agreed to a two-year deal and will not be draft-eligible until 2028.
Kentucky’s attempt at landing one more NBA-level player for the 2026-27 college basketball season has fallen short.
Serbian teenager Nikola Kusturica committed to UCLA on Thursday morning.
Kusturica — a 6-foot-8 wing — played this past season with FC Barcelona and is widely regarded as one of the best young international prospects in the sport. He is a potential lottery pick in the NBA draft and would have provided Pope with another versatile option on the perimeter.
Instead, he’ll be playing next season for coach Mick Cronin and the Bruins. In fact, he’s likely to spend the next two college seasons in Los Angeles.
At 17 years old, Kusturica won’t be eligible for the NBA draft until 2028, and the expectation once he decided to go the college route has been that he would spend two years with whichever school he picked.
Kentucky appeared to be the potential favorite to land Kusturica at one point last month, but that projection turned out to be premature. Michigan and UCLA were then viewed as possible frontrunners, but then head coach Dusty May left the reigning national champion Wolverines to take the top job with the Dallas Mavericks, throwing another wrinkle into Kusturica’s recruitment.
Other schools linked to the promising young player over the past several weeks have been Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga and Louisville.
In the end, he picked UCLA, which made the 2021 Final Four during Cronin’s first NCAA Tournament as head coach and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen the following two years but has not made it beyond the second round in any of the past three seasons.
UCLA was not included in ESPN’s latest Top 25 rankings for the 2026-27 season. It’s possible that the commitment of Kusturica will push Cronin’s program into those preseason rankings.
Kusturica made his debut for FC Barcelona’s first team at just 16 years old, becoming the youngest player in the team’s storied history. He ultimately appeared in eight Spanish league games and one EuroLeague game this past season.
His rare mix of scoring, passing and ball-handling ability for a player of his size — as well as his upside as a 3-point shooter — caught the attention of the top teams in college basketball late in the current recruiting cycle, though he was an established name on the international radar long before that.
Kusturica led Serbia to the FIBA U16 EuroBasket championship last year, averaging 20.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.6 blocks per game while earning tournament MVP honors. He recently represented Serbia in the FIBA U17 World Cup.
In that event, he averaged 24.6 points over seven appearances and scored 37 points with nine rebounds in a loss to the United States in the championship game.
After missing on the talented teenager, Kentucky’s roster stands at 14 players for the 2026-27 season. Pope’s group features top returnee Malachi Moreno, the team’s starting center as a freshman, and highly touted transfer forward Milan Momcilovic, who was the top 3-point shooter in the country at Iowa State last season.
Both players are viewed as potential first-rounders in next year’s NBA draft.
UK’s starting backcourt could consist of talented transfer guards Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins, with returning wing Kam Williams expected to play a major role in his junior year after emerging as a starter for the Cats last season.
The Cats, who boast the No. 2 transfer class in the country, according to 247Sports, are No. 17 in ESPN’s preseason Top 25 rankings.
UK’s eight-week summer practice session started on June 15, and while Kusturica would’ve provided Pope’s roster with more firepower on the perimeter, it’s possible that the Kentucky coach will now hold tight at 14 players for next season, though he has said in recent interviews that he’s open to adding one more player.
